Over the years, I’ve played some games that are full-on parodies of their genres, chock full of quirky dialogue and satire. These range from Deadpool, to The Bard’s Tale, to the unknown/underrated Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard. While some games make meta jokes, these games go all-out and are fairly rare nowadays. It was a joy to see Sir Whoopass come about to do the same, so how does this game fare in both its comedy and its gameplay?

Straight from the first scene, players will know just how satirical and jokey Sir Whoopass is presented. While you tear down skeletons, orcs, and everything in-between, you’ll do so with a goofy hat on that gives specific stat bonuses, such as 25% more damage or a quicker movement/swing speed. With each level-up, you’ll also be able to enhance Mr. Whoopass, letting him be stronger, faster, more damage-resistant, or better at looting.

Every few minutes (or even seconds) in Sir Whoopass, you’ll be elevated with some form of humor. Whether it’s munching on a gnome to recover your health, throwing a romantic flower into the battlefield to stun your enemies as they blow you kisses, or fast-travel back to the home castle through an outhouse, the laughs are unavoidable and so high in quantity that some wear out their welcome in mere minutes. Regardless, the gameplay loop is satisfying enough when you land a well-timed block to overcome foes that could otherwise tear you down in no-time.

Sir Whoopass was evidently worked on by a small, new studio, Atomic Elbow. Doing so without a publisher’s funding is impressive, as the game is quite stable and plays fairly well at any given time. It’s not without its framerate issues (the High and Ultra graphics settings were disabled in my review stage due to a bug, which was patched a few days later) but it looks pretty enough for what the tiny studio could manage to do.

There’s some design choices that Sir Whoopass certainly could have benefited from to make for a more fun experience. While there is a map, you can’t place any waypoints even though a system exists on your HUD. In addition, some parts of the map are blocked off by “rain”, and it’s unclear where to go once you begin the game’s main mission. When I did figure out where to go, I was faced with an agonizing platforming section with 0 room for error. Sir Whoopass isn’t maneuverable enough to navigate these sections without frustration, so it stinks that they’re mandatory.

There’s certainly a target audience for Sir Whoopass, and I belong in it. It had a lot of fun gameplay, and I found myself immersed/addicted for a few nights as I played through it, despite its faults. I’m happy to say it’s a competent first effort for Atomic Elbow, but still needs some fine-tuning to become a great game. Seeing as there was a quick hotfix right after launch, Sir Whoopass could continue to improve. In the meantime, approach Sir Whoopass with caution.

A PC review copy of Sir Whoopass was provided by Atomic Elbow for this review.

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Sir Whoopass

$16.99

6.5

Score

6.5/10

Pros

• Fun Enough Gameplay Loop
• Charming Writing

Cons

• Serious Level of Jank
• Awful Platforming
• Performance Issues